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Foreigners Fight Again in the Embattled Caucasus

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When a visitor started to take a seat for lunch at a place where a plate, glass and fork had been set, a military officer at the table solemnly asked him not to. The place was reserved in honor of a commander, Monte Melkonian, who was killed in combat here on June 12. Upstairs in the military headquarters, a candle flickered beneath a large photograph of Mr. Melkonian, balding, with a thick, black beard.

"He was the best god we ever had," said an Armenian.

He was also an American, born in Visalia, Calif., in 1957. Almost anonymously, another American was also killed here last month, fighting with the ethnic Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh who are trying to secede from Azerbaijan. A Lure to Adventurers

Since the early 1800's, when Russia, Turkey, Persia and Britain contested the mountains of Central Asia, the region has seduced -- and trapped -- intrepid explorers and spies in the service of their countries and causes.

Today the strangers come from Lebanon, Iraq, Iran and Syria, as well as the United States and, above all, at least 100 from Russia. To the Azerbaijanis, they are mercenaries. But the warriors with the ethnic Armenians say they are motivated by the cause, not money.

Many are Armenian by background, whose families were forced out of their homelands by the Turkish massacres of the Armenians early in this century; they have come to avenge the past and gain an independent Karabakh in the future. Terrorist? Freedom Fighter?

American officials considered Mr. Melkonian a terrorist, said his 30-year-old wife, Seta, as she folded her husband's blood-soaked flak jacket. "But we told them he's a fighter for freedom."

Whatever, it was a long way from the academic disposition he had displayed at the University of California at Berkeley, where he graduated in two and a half years with a degree in archeology and a thesis about the people who occupied the land of Armenia even before the Armenians.

After that, he went to Lebanon for eight years, according to his wife. During that time, she said, he traveled to Syria, Iran and Afghanistan. She declined to say what he was doing.

He appeared in Karabakh in 1992. With charisma and discipline, he rapidly became the most highly regarded commander. A Straight-Shooter, It Is Said

He was also said to have led an exemplary life. "He didn't smoke, he didn't drink -- not cognac, not vodka, nothing," said an Armenian who reveres Mr. Malkonian, which made him a standout among men where heavy drinking seems to be the norm.

At Mr. Melkonian's funeral in Yerevan, more than 50,000 turned out, including President Levon Ter-Petrossyan.

Far less heralded, in fact almost a secret, was the death of Garo Kahkejian, 31, from Fresno, Calif. He was killed in Karabakh by small-arms fire on June 26, according to Troy Kahkejian, his brother. Cloud Over 'the Crusaders'

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The brothers were members of a unit called the Crusaders, the name emblazoned in English and Armenian on the side of a jeep that speeds about Stepanakert, the Karabakh capital, with regional flags whipping from aerials.

Troy Kahkejian and another American with the Crusaders were not at all pleased when a journalist and photographer stumbled onto their compound. They would not allow any pictures, and Mr. Kahkejian's colleague would not identify himself, other than to say that he was also from Fresno and that he had left behind a pregnant wife in order to come here to help Karabakh secede.

As for the Russians here, some seem to be mercenaries, while others say they are motivated by what they consider to be the injustices they saw when they were stationed here. Why Russians Come

"I saw villages that had been burned and the civilians killed by the Azerbaijanis," said Igor Bouzirev, 25, who had his leg shattered while fighting for the Karabakh Army a few months ago. On an Aeroflot helicopter flight from Yerevan to Stepanakert, Mr. Bouzirev sat stoically, his wounded leg resting against a 250-gallon barrel of gasoline.

Mr. Bouzirev said the Russian troops had orders not to intervene in the conflict between Azerbaijan and the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh, but he does not understand this.

"As an army, we are supposed to protect civilians," he said. Thus, after being discharged from the Russian Army, he returned to Karabakh.

Yuri Nikolayich, on the other hand, deserted the Russian Army rather than return to Moscow when his unit was pulled out of Karabakh in 1991. He said that 22 officers deserted with him, and that 5 or 6 were still here. Altogether, from a high of some 200 former Russian soldiers fighting with the Karabakh Army, there are still 50 to 100 here, Mr. Nikolayich said. Reports of Atrocities

Now an aide to the Karabakh Minister of Defense, Mr. Nikolayich had been an infantryman in the Soviet Army for 26 years, including a stint in Afghanistan. He was sent to Azerbaijan in 1988 and a year later to Karabakh, when Moscow sent troops to quell disturbances arising from Karabakh's desire for independence. He said that several times, he saw Azerbaijani troops kill civilians and burn villages, and that once he even heard an Azerbaijani officer give the order.

"We told Moscow what was happening and asked for orders to intervene," he said. "But they told us, it's not your job, don't do anything, it's a political matter. I think this war would never have begun if we had been given orders to stop the Turkish fanatics," an insulting term for the Azerbaijanis, who are mostly Muslim.

"We want to be free on our land, to live as we want to live," Mr. Nikolayich said, speaking as the citizen of Karabakh that he considers himself to be, though he was born in Kazakhstan. "We do not want Azerbaijanis here giving us orders, we do not want Americans, we do not want Russians," said the outsider who has fought to stay.

A version of this article appears in print on August 4, 1993, on Page A00003 of the National edition with the headline: Foreigners Fight Again in the Embattled Caucasus. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe